People...How Dare They Be Important...

I'm up rather early today...

So much so that no one else is awake yet...I'm sure one of the boys are but they just haven't come down yet because they know that today is the day that is going to prove that the rest of the weekend was awesome...it's cleaning day...

It's funny last night I said to them that we've had fun all weekend and so that should tell them what tomorrow (meaning today) is going to be...The Manchild looked up before I said anything else and said..."I'm only doing my room" really quickly...
I shook my head slowly as I laughed..."No we need to clean the living room so that we can move some furniture around a bit so that we can put up the Christmas tree..."

I have one of those 'lived in houses'...that's what I like to call it....lol
But truly...it's a mess...full of clutter...piles of laundry that go undone...projects started that now lay on a table half done...*shrugs*

For the most part I don't particularly care...There's better things I do with my time then cleaning...I would like to be more motivated to clean...to want to do laundry...to tidy up and make everything 'look nice'...

But really when it comes right down to it I'm lazy...and I'd rather do stuff that's a lot more fun...

Lately...it's been more lazy then fun as I haven't really been able to truly feel like I'm having fun...until...

Yesterday I had some fun...as well as Friday night...

I felt a lot better.

On Friday the Manchild decided that he didn't want to go to his Dad's...said it was going to be too boring there...so...after taking the Boychild to his swimming lessons the three of us, the Man and the Boychild and myself, all went shopping for snacks...that in itself can be a big ordeal at times...we came home with nachos, nacho cheese, pork rinds, brandy beans, mint rosebuds, regular rosebuds, peanut butter type rosebuds, pringles, soya nuts, pistachios, popcorn (made here) and I feel like I'm forgetting something...but anyway...

we can be some pretty serious snackers...lol

When we got back we finished watching the movie Wrath of the Titans...then the kids noticed DrunkenMonkey was online playing Black Ops 2 and challenged him to a couple of games...so got on skype with him...and all of us, except the Man (he just enjoyed watching), took turns playing with DrunkenMonkey...

The Manchild took such pleasure in beating the crap out of him...and the Boychild loves killing him and then walking over to his body and then making his character crouch up and down while calling over to him on skype 'tea bag, tea bag, tea bag...' lol
DrunkenMonkey saw it the one time...and was all 'Duuuude!' so since then Boychild does it with relish...

I ended that night well into the earlier morning playing rock band...realizing that Krammit still has our guitar I had to use the mic...felt good about myself as I kept getting in the 90's for my percentages with the songs I was singing...

Yesterday morning I woke up... and asked the Man if he wanted to Hamilton for my extended family's Christmas party...I originally had RSVP'd that we wouldn't be going,,,mainly because my Mum and my Sister weren't going and because the Manchild was supposed to be at his dad's...

I don't know why it hit me while laying in bed yesterday morning that we should go or that I suddenly wanted to go...so we took the kids out for a nice breakfast at the diner...which it always makes me happy when four of us can go out for a yummy breakfast for under $35...but anyway...we all went out for breakfast I grabbed a couple packs of Christmas cards and came home filled them all out to take with me (including some extras in case I forgot a couple of people)...we got changed and headed out with a couple of stops to Hamilton...

I was a bit nervous truthfully...because up until this trip I had never spent any time with any of these family members without either my mum or my sister being there almost like a buffer...

So I showed up and was intrigued that I had only told 3 people that we weren't coming...and yet...nearly all the actual family members looked surprised as they got there and said 'Hey! I didn't think you were coming?!" as they hugged me...I explained that our other plans fell through and decided at last minute to come up...

If it was a small gathering I probably wouldn't have sprung it on them...but this is a big part of one section of my family...the matriarch is Ruth....and she had Harriet, Heather, Roland, Jack and Glen (twins), Bobby, and Scott... Ruth is my mum's Aunt and her kids are all my mum's cousins...

So a lot of them are my mum's age and younger...and of course they have some kids...and some of them come...they're around my age and a bit younger...and of course...now my generation has kids...so needless to say it's a fairly huge gathering when the majority of us are there...

It was so nice to just get lost in the sea of people who I knew I was safe with...no one there was going to hurt me in any way...and it was a nice place to let my guard down a bit...talked with the older cousins and asked how they've been and had them ask about us...had the comments of how I'm looking great...if I'm lucky I get to see this particular bunch of family once maybe twice a year...

it sucks but at the same time... at least when I see them and they ask 'what's new?' they're asking because they want to know, because sure some of them are on my FB but...they're actually interested...
and only those who are interested actually ask...I have to admit there are one or two people that come to these gatherings who never say a word to me...and...I'm ok with that... lol

I'm always of the mindset that no one remembers me...because I'm easily forgotten...
(this isn't just something that happens when in relationships...it's pretty much an ongoing thing through my entire life)

So it was nice that being there, pretty much by myself and having people that I haven't seen all year asking about specifics in my life... *shrugs*

I think it will continue to surprise me....which is ok...I find it nice.

I felt happy...came home and was sharing a smoke with The Man...I told him I was happy that we went...and it wasn't a lie...there were moments of happiness while there...

You see my family gets together and the guitars come out and the singing ensues...when I was the Manchilds age we would go for xmas at Ruth's house (now it's in a hall due to the size of our family) and we would eat at a huge table down in the basement (biggest room that would hold us in the house) we'd all eat together and after the dishes got cleared away the guitars would come out and the singing would start...

Not Christmas Carols...lol - far from it.... House of the Raising Sun, Proud Mary, Hotel California, Bobby McGee... Classic Rock tunes... that's what my family sings when it gets together...some newer songs get added as the kids of the kids and their kids come up through the years...last night Taylor Swift's song Never Getting Back Together made it to the list...none of the older guys knew the song to sing or to play it on the guitar...and really only two of the girls were willing to sing it...one was about the Boychild's age...around 11 or so...and the other was one of the girls from my generation singing with the younger one to help her confidence of singing in front of the family...as the song went on I couldn't help but join in...so there we were the three of us singing the song in front of the whole family...
It's always so laid back and easy...

Best way to describe it... Easy.

Ties to others are important...even if it's on rare occasions...it's necessary to have those ties to people who love and care about you...